Letters to the editor

Published: October 12, 2004 12:00 AM

Bush is still the right man for the job Editor:I have followed politics many years, and am disgusted with the ugly, atrocious turn politics has taken. Democrats accuse Republicans of what they themselves are guilty. They were hell bent on depicting President Bush as a "divider." Al Gore may have had the popular vote during the 2000 election, but the Electoral College elects the president.Arms from foreign countries are sold to use against the United States. These are from some of the same countries Mr. Kerry wants to court in the United Nations if he becomes president who team up to oppose us at every turn.Don't tell me that this hatred of America started with George Bush. The United Nations has voted against us consistently, for many years.What about NAFTA the open trade with Mexico and Canada? Did you vote for this bill under President Clinton, before you voted against it?As far as Vietnam goes, Mr. Kerry, what other soldier had a cameraman following him around, taking pictures at every turn? So you could show how heroic you were? Mr. Kerry, sign the papers to release your Vietnam service records.When my son returned home after serving in Vietnam, it was the likes of John Kerry and Jane Fonda who spit on him when he got off the plane. That left a scar that will remain with him forever. My son was proud of his medals, including the Purple Heart. He framed and displayed them on the walls of his apartment at OSU. He removed them because he was ridiculed for serving instead of running to Canada. Many soldiers had feces, sticks, stones, bottles, and eggs thrown at them by college students protesting the war.I learned in school that France and Germany are no bigger than one of our larger states. When the world recognizes the strength, leadership and kindness of the United States, then progress will be made. We are the only country in the world that is large enough and has the economy to help people around the world. We distribute our wealth to nations in need. Whoever helped us in our times of need? No one.George W. Bush is the "right man" at the "right time."Julia GrosjeanWoosterSolidarity turned to dismayEditor:"We are all Americans," announced LeMonde on Sept. 13, 2001.In the face of 9/11, friends overseas phoned or wrote the horror, grief and solidarity they shared with our family, with all Americans really. Sylvaine in Paris sobbed on the phone as she sought our help in locating Lisa who worked at the Word Trade Center. Lisa had died in the flames.The U.S. attacked targets in Afghanistan within a month. Peoples and governments around the world understood the U.S. action, and NATO has troops in Afghanistan.Three years before 9/11, certain folks here had other things in mind. In January 1998, they sent Clinton a letter saying that we must be ready to attack Iraq with its WMD (see www.newamericancentury.org). Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle and others in the future Bush administration signed the letter.That administration would use 9/11 as a pretext for attacking Iraq. It would get public opinion to believe that U.N. inspections in Iraq weren't working, that Iraq had WMD, that Iraq was a threat to us, that a pre-emptive strike would take care of it, that Iraqis would welcome our troops with flowers.We fell for it, as did some other governments. The ones that didn't fall for it, we ridiculed. We joked about "Old Europe" as if the countries so many of our ancestors came from could be tossed in the garbage like dirty rags. "Old Europe" had a pretty good idea that the U.N. inspections were working. But the administration has an agenda, and there was no room in it for inspections.Solidarity? We lost it then. It's not that "Old Europe" didn't like us. It's that our government was leading us into an unjustifiable war, quite unlike the one in Afghanistan; that our government was careless and arrogant."We are all Americans," said people around the world in solidarity with us after 9/11. Then came Iraq, and solidarity turned to dismay and consternation.David WilkinWooster